If you were offended by the two Florida men who celebrated Halloween by dressing up as George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, complete with blackface and blood-stained hoodie, you haven't met Alicia Ann Lynch.

The 22-year-old Michigan native thought it would be a good idea to "go" as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing so she tweeted and Instagrammed a photograph of herself dressed as runner sporting fake scars and blood. And a big smile.

If one could hear the rage that Lynch's actions generated from the online world, it would best be described as deafening.

Lynch, who has since deactivated her social media accounts, received venomous abuse and had her life threatened.

On buzzfeed.com, the site that reported the story, one person wrote: "People at the Boston Marathon died in terror and agony... and you looked at the images and thought 'lol funny costume idea'?"

Things got uglier after some users discovered that Lynch had once posted a photo of her driver's licence.

Some contacted her family and some circulated nude photos and videos of her they found of her on tumblr.

Lynch reopened her Twitter account briefly to apologize and tweeted: "I have been fired from my job. I am paying for what I thought was a simple joke. I know it was wrong now. I wasn't thinking."

I thought this society stopped drawing lines a while ago. It’s amazing to me how much time and effort people hundreds or thousands of miles away from this young woman will spend to hurt her because they took offense to something they didn’t even witness.

Technology has made communication too easy to hurt people. We should have a five day waiting period before exercising your first amendment rights to speech - a cooling off period, if you will.

9
posted on 11/03/2013 10:07:41 AM PST
by andyk
(I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)

...some users discovered that Lynch had once posted a photo of her driver's licence. Some contacted her family and some circulated nude photos and videos of her they found of her on tumblr. Lynch reopened her Twitter account briefly to apologize and tweeted: "I have been fired from my job. I am paying for what I thought was a simple joke. I know it was wrong now. I wasn't thinking."

Wow. Bet her former employer is happy this trainwreck is no longer on the payroll. Scary dumb.

Having just plucked two rusty roofing nails from his stomach, James Costello staggers toward any help he can find, his ears ringing and his body sprayed with shrapnel.

He ended up spending two weeks in Mass General, where he got to meet Dumbo, followed by two more weeks of in-patient therapy at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. He needed extensive pig skin grafts on his arm and a leg.

I thought this society stopped drawing lines a while ago. Its amazing to me how much time and effort people hundreds or thousands of miles away from this young woman will spend to hurt her because they took offense to something they didnt even witness. Technology has made communication too easy to hurt people. We should have a five day waiting period before exercising your first amendment rights to speech - a cooling off period, if you will.

Agree 100%.

Reminds me of the quote by Leo Tolstoy: "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself"

First, would a leftist or a conservative be more likely to make fun of victims of Islamist violence? I would say a leftist.

Second, would a conservative or a leftist be more angered by someone who made light of an attack on Americans by Muslim terrorists? I would say a conservative would be the obvious answer.

Third, surely you realize that The Scarlet Letter was written by a leftist in order to demonize conservatism, yes? That the townspeople of the book are a leftist's caricature of his hated conservative neighbors?

Ultimately, if you are going to amuse yourself by mocking the still-raw wounds of others, you should probably expect that others will amuse themselves by mocking you and exposing your faults to the world.

There are already quite a few victim costumes; but, I take your point about the 'victim' motif. Actual terrorist costumes are already fairly popular; so, you're probably right regarding dressing up as Tsarnaev.

My main point remains: many Halloween costumes are 'offensive', in one way or another. The more 'offensive' costumes may have a cathartic effect -- even if the wearer is just trying to get attention, or be 'shocking'.

Remember when Prince Harry dressed up as some sort of Nazi soldier? A huge fuss was raised over that; yet it's likely that there would have been no 'public outrage' if Prince Harry had gone as The Prince of Darkness himself -- just as millions of non-princes have done.

When are people going to wise up to the fact that stupid posts on social media can get you fired? Facebook and Twitter are like PC bear traps just waiting to snap on someone - the stupider you are, the better to stay away from them.

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